Hi there!
Thinking of doing a B.Des or already knee-deep in design submissions, mood boards, and sleepless all-nighters? Welcome to the world where every assignment is a mini heartbreak and no one outside your college understands what you actually do.
“Design is not just what it looks like. Design is how it panics the night before a jury.”
Let’s take a stroll through what life really looks like for a B.Des student in India.
✏️ Year 1: The Curious Case of Over-Sharpened Pencils
You enter the world of design like a sponge—soaking in everything from Bauhaus to bad font choices. Orientation week is all about learning how to use craft knives, realizing that Photoshop layers are not optional, and spending half your pocket money on sketchbooks you never finish.
You soon learn the golden rule: Your idea is never final. Your professor will say, “It’s good… but can you try something else?” Which roughly translates to “Delete it and start again.”
💻 Year 2: The Great Software Awakening
You thought sketching was the main task? Cute.
This is the year when Adobe becomes your new best friend and your old laptop starts sounding like an airplane. You’ll learn the art of explaining your concept in 2 minutes while your file crashes behind you.
Internals become harder to track than your charger, and group projects often mean one person works, four critique. Presentation boards, renders, and suddenly knowing the Pantone number for every shade of grey—you’re becoming fluent in the secret language of designers.
🧠 Year 3: From Mood Boards to Mental Breakdowns
Now you’re expected to think like a brand strategist, design like a magician, and deliver like a project manager. Concept development? Check. User persona? Check. Sleep? Haha, what’s that?
Late-night hostel brainstorms, chai-fueled prototyping, and the night before jury panic become part of your schedule. And God forbid if the printer shop guy is in a bad mood.
Also, this is the phase where your family starts asking when you’ll get a “real job”, and you try explaining UX/UI without sounding like you’re making it up.
🏁 Final Year: The Ultimate Boss Level
Your capstone project is basically your child now. You live, breathe, and dream about it. The words “design thinking” start sounding like a chant.
You attend design critiques, start judging fonts on restaurant menus, and begin to realize that your identity is forever marked by typography and broken rulers.
When the final jury comes, you’re half proud, half fried, but fully caffeinated.
🎒 What You Really Learn During B.Des
- How to survive on 2 hours of sleep and 3 cups of chai.
- That creativity doesn’t strike at 9 AM, it usually strikes at 2:47 AM.
- How to confidently present a project you made five minutes ago.
- That sometimes, “minimal design” actually means “deadline was in 10 minutes.”
🎓 Conclusion: B.Des is a Journey, Not Just a Degree
Life during B.Des is chaotic, colorful, and confusing—but never boring. You’ll build resilience, creativity, and a whole lot of muscle memory from Ctrl+S-ing every two minutes.
So if you’re in the middle of this wild ride, just remember—every line you draw, every file you lose, and every jury you survive is shaping you into a creator who sees the world just a little differently.
